JetBlue to 'evolve' TrueBlue frequent flyer program under new loyalty chief
JetBlue announced a new head of its loyalty program on Thursday, promoting an insider to a top spot.
The airline said that Chris Buckner, who joined JetBlue in 2020 as a director managing customer loyalty and partnerships, will be promoted to vice president and tasked with overseeing the entire TrueBlue program.
He replaces Don Uselmann, who was appointed vice president of inflight experience.
Buckner's appointment comes as the airline continues to further link parts of its loyalty program with American Airlines as part of the Northeast Alliance, offering reciprocal earning, redemption and loyalty benefits across the two airlines.
Under the alliance, JetBlue and American codeshare on some routes and offer reciprocal frequent flyer benefits — with a focus on service in New York and Boston. The airlines have reconfigured schedules and networks around the partnership — for instance, American has cut some routes that JetBlue has begun to operate and code-share on, such as the long-standing shuttle service between Boston Logan (BOS) and New York-LaGuardia (LGA).
The airline's announcement suggested that TrueBlue could see big changes under Buckner, but was vague on details, saying only that he would be in charge of continuing to "evolve" the program, and that he'd be tasked with "evolv[ing] JetBlue's cobranded credit card portfolio."
More: Meet the woman now in charge of American's AAdvantage frequent flyer program
Buckner worked elsewhere in the airline industry before coming to JetBlue. According to LinkedIn, he spent over eight years at Delta, starting in revenue management before moving to loyalty and customer experience. Most immediately before joining JetBlue, he worked as a director for RECARO Aircraft Seating.
American Airlines, incidentally, also has a new loyalty head. Longtime executive Julie Rath was appointed to a new role as vice president of customer experience, loyalty and marketing earlier this month.
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